New-York tribune. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1866-1924, 1887-05-27
NEW PUBLICATIONS.
A CHURCH DICTIONARY.

THE DICTIONARY OF RELIGION: An Encyclopedia
OF Christian and other Religious DenomnaI Pns
eects IIeresies Ecclesiastical Terms History, bog
raphy etc, ctc. Edited by the Rev WILLIAM bkS-
HAM, b. d., f. g. A. svo. PIP. w. LAS 0aS'e" "
Co. :.
The editor defines the standpoint" adopted IN
this work to be that of orthodox Christianity as
generally understood by intelligent members VI 'no
Cburch of England" That would DC gnu
position from which to construct o oic''oha,'
the Church of England, but dictionary Oh reiis'on
ut large ought 10 rest on broaoer eiounu
characteristic of a well-known type OF EhshSnm"n
TO assume as automatic that English opinion Is 'no
last conceivable standard of truth ana propre'y ="
all things; and it must be confessed 'pa. ~"
Benham often reminds US of the national iaihns'
uo ;,clrdas of course. a vast number OF topics
which are by no means peculiar to the Cnui0" u
ENGLAND which are even more prominent IN 'ho
history doctrine or ritual of other denomlnatohs'
and vet he treats them if only the AnR'o""
aspect of them worth consderins' ina.
the case for example, with the very mesgre ai'i0iS
. Atari which does not even refer to the affairs Oh
the Jews or the pagans and with tie articie Arch-
bishop which scarcely looks beyond thelr olaoes
of Canterbury and York. In the article Oanoh
there is a comical illustration OF EDgllsh eAcius'o
ness; nothing has been said to indicate that tho
writer is combining himself to the practices OF any
o,s Church. but in large general way he surprises
us with the statement that after the suppression Oh
the monasteries cathedral canons were allowed 10
marry and become heads OF families as there
were no canOns in the word except tnose oi 'no
Anglican establishment. Sometimes whore oliler-
emit denominations use an ecclesiastical telhh III
different senses the dictionary gives only INC
Anglican definition. ignoring the others In con-
troyerted questions of history and doctrine VIC
have too often dOgmatic statement OF the OLulch
of England view, without so much as hiht Una. IL
article . Apostolical Succession" which declares
the official genealogy of the Archbshops CT Canter
burv IN be historically certain" that this Official
penealogy has been hoty discussed for three CEN
turies Undoubtedly Mr.. Benham aud Other
champions of the Church of England are perfectly
satisfied that the validity OF Archbishop farKers
conservation has becn proved; but as matter OF
fact the DISPUTE continues. Ecclesiastical Courts
refers 10 none but those of England, though surely
the subject has great deal of Importance IN con-
tnental history. "Congregationalists," =" farlsn'
sPreate,n Surplice." are examples OF articles
which are not only defective but incorrect because
they are treated as exclusively English.
Mr. Bsnham declares that he has been at pains to
lat other Christian denominations be represented by
a fair statement of their opinions and reasons as
they themselves would give them, rather than as
their views are understood by others. He has not
been entirely successful in this charitable en-
deavor; he has too sincere belief In his own SIDE
to be willing that ANYBODY should get the better OF
it, Indeed, even when his will is good, he does
not ALWAYS think it worth while to inform himself
about things that are un-Euglish. This probably
accounts for preposterous little article on Bishop
In Partibus" for the article ON the papal Sylla-
busn almost every sentence in which contains q
serious mistake of fact; for a sketch OF Mohnos
the Quetist, whose doctrine is quite wrongly
stated; and for curious account OF the lndeH
Expurgatoriusn written under the erroneous mo-
ton that it is tho same thing as the Index OF
Forbidden Books" The article on Probabllsm
is grossly erroneous. 1t starts with false dehn-
ton that Probablism is the doctrine that 1t IS
lawful to act upon any probable opinion however
slight it's probability" 1t goes on to say that
probabism was condemned by Pope Innocent Nj;
and il ends nevertheless. with the remarkable
abatement that this condemned doctrine is now
universally entertained-by theoogians, as we I'M
derstand Mr. Benham, of whatever creed. The
theory of morals which he defines as probaDllsm IS
not probabism but laxity. This Is what was con-
demned by Innocent XII. it is not held by any
school Of casusts and certainly never was held, as
Mr. Benham says it ives, by Liguori. Our author
in short does not understand his subject
There is droll article of dozen lines on Robert
Herrick. of whom we are only told that he was " a
sacred poet" that he held certain liv'ngs, and
that the date Of his death is unknown. There is
not hint of the character of his verse, or of his
place in literature (which certainly does not
depend upon his sacred poetry aud the date OF
his death is well known to be October, 1874
Hinder the title Archdeacon we are told that the
archdeacou's court was almost an exact copy In
peftoD of the bishops own court The writer
evidently supposes that in petto" means in
httlen; it means in the breast" ain secret"
Perhaps the queerest error of the volu me- however,
is in the catalogue of Popes. where we learn that
Honorius /. was "condemned as a hereto for
Monothesm." We hope we are not to understand
that intelligent members Of the Church of Eng
land" regard monothesm az heresy.
/ Among the good features of this not very
iudiciously edited work we may note the attention
paid 10 modern controversies aud phases of belief,
such as Evolution, Materialsm and PosiL7sm and
tie biographies of modern characters THE living.
however not being included), which are numerous
and representative, though not always well done.